Bracelet.



H. GINNEL.

BRACELET APPLICATION FILED MAR.9.1915.

1,150,859, Patented Aug. 24,1915.

rm ml l iilr illl l IHMIIIIIIIIIIIH WITNESSES IN VE IV TOR Qua 07%;

HENRY GINNEL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BRACELET.

Application filed March 9, 1915.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY GINNEL, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, of the city of New York, in the county of Kings, in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bracelets, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

Bracelets for ladies wear, particularly those which are used with wrist watches, are now usually made with expansion links so that they may conform more closely to the wrists of the wearers. In such bracelets each link consists usually of an outer member, an inner member and an interposed spiral spring which normally maintains the two members of the link in their contracted relation but yields to permit relative longitudinal movement of the two members. The outer member consists of two side bars connected near their ends by cross pins. The inner member consists of an elongated loop which embraces the pin at one end of the corresponding outer member and the pin at the adjacent end of the outer member of the next link, the other end of the inner member being guided in the outer member. The spring is placed within the inner member, bearing at one end against the corresponding end of the inner member and at the other end against the cross pin. As such bracelets are sold to the retail jewelers each bracelet usually has eight of such expansion links, but it sometimes happens that for a slender wrist seven links are sufficient and that for a thick wrist nine links are required. If the inner member of each link is a closed loop (usually closed by soldering in the manufacture), it must be cut to permit the link to be removed from one bracelet and have its ends reunited if it is applied again to another bracelet. This operation requires care and labor, sometimes out of proportion to the selling price of the bracelet. To meet this objection bracelets are sometimes made with the inner links out at one point, with the ends abutting or slightly overlapping. With the inner members of the links so constructed it is easy for the retail jewelers to take out a link from one bracelet and to put it into another. The cutting of the inner member, however, introduced an element of weakness, for as each link is itself curved, any considerable strain Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug, 24, 1915,

Serial No. 13,290.

on the link, as when the bracelet is slipped over the hand, tends to straighten out the link and to separate the ends, at each side of member for the link which will permit alink to be removed readily from one bracelet and put in another, but shallresist effectually the tendency of the link, or its inner memher, to become straightened out under longitudinal strain. In accordance with the invention the inner member of the link is cut through its inner side, that is, it is made up with a line of separation at some point in its inner side, and the two ends, at opposite sides of the cut or line of separation, are made to interengage in such manner that the tendency of the two ends to become separated under longitudinal strain is efiectually resisted.

The invention will be more fully explained hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is illustrated and in which- Figure 1 is a view in perspective showing a bracelet with a wrist watch. Fig. 2 is a detail view on a larger scale and in longitudinal central section of a portion of the bracelet shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail view on a larger scale, partly in elevation and partly in section, ofthe inner member of one of the links, the ends being shown as engaged by a screw. Fig. 4 is a view of the same as seen from the under side in Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 8, but with the ends shown as engaged by a friction pin. Fig. 6 is a view of the same as seen from the under side in Fig. 5.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing a wrist watch a is shown as connected to the ends of an expansion bracelet I). Each of the links 0 of the bracelet, or one or more of the links 0, comprises an outer member consisting of side bars (Z and cross pins cl by which the side bars are held in parallelism but spaced somewhat apart as usual in bracelets of the character indicated; an inner member 6, and a spring 7. The inner member is cut, or has its ends disunited at a convenient point,v as at 6, with the ends, at opposite sides of the cut or line of separation, adapted to be interengaged so as to resist separation when the link member is subjected to longitudinal strain. The ends are overlapped, as clearly shown in Figs. 2, '3 and 5, and are interengaged by a connecting stud. In the construction shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the stud takes the form of a screw 6 which is passed through one end and is tapped into the other end and, in the construction shown in Figs. 5 and 6, it takes the form of a friction'pin e which has a tight friction fit in each of the two overlapping ends.

, The connecting stud connects the two ends,

at the cut or line of separation, so that the tendency of the two ends to separate when the link member 6 is subjected to longitudinal strain, shall be resisted effectually. At the same time it is an easy matter for the jeweler to disengage the ends so as to permit a link to be taken out of one bracelet or to be put into another as may be required.

Each terminal member of the bracelet may besecured to a loop or bow'of the watch case by disconnecting the ends of one of the inner links, engaging the hook portion with the loop or how and then reconnecting the ends of the inner link, or by separating the sidebars of an outer member of the link, engaging such link with the loop or bow, and then resecuring together the separated side bars, or by the use of an ordinary snap ring at either end. I claim as my invention:

In a bracelet, a link composed of an outer member with side bars and cross pins'and aninner member'formed as a'fiattened loop with'its ends disunited, overlapped in the plane of the member and detachably engaged by a connecting stud at right angles HENRY GINNELQ Signedin the presence of- W. B. GREELEY, vVoRTHINGTON CAMPBELL.

Copies; of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. g 

